Google

In the next few months, Google will get some competition from Microsoft, Apple and a few startups in this space. For better or worse, none of them know as much about you as Google does, so it’ll be hard for them to replicate the Google Now experience. That should give Google a bit of an edge against the competition — unless the iWatch turns out to be so amazing that people will buy it even if it just shows the time and phone notifications.

After the official unveiling of Android Wear devices last week Google have now finally uploaded a selection of Wear Apps to the Play Store. In total there are currently 33 apps available to download to your wear device although Google do insist more will follow soon.

Google hasn't yet released details on what specific handsets will work with Android Auto — but it seems like a safe bet that LG's future smartphones will work with the new system. And if the company keeps putting out phones as good as the G3 we reviewed last month, Android Auto support will be another point in favor of LG.

Google’s Chrome OS was back in the spotlight this week due to its upcoming ability to run Android apps. One of the newest Chrome OS devices is LG’s Chromebase, a low-cost Chrome OS all-in-one PC. Now, the Chromebase is on sale on Amazon for the low price of just $329, making it one of the cheapest full-sized PCs to date.

The Chromebase doesn’t require hefty internals which cuts down the cost significantly. The specs include a 22-inch 1080p IPS display, 1.4GHz dual-core Intel Celeron processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB SSD, USB 3.0 port, three USB 2.0 ports, HDMI port, and an ethernet port. Before you start bashing the Chromebase for its meager spec list, remember that it uses Chrome OS which requires very little power to run. Cloud storage is also emphasized with a free 100GB of Google Drive storage bundled with the Chromebase. A mouse and keyboard are included.

It’s barely a day later and we are already seeing another release of one of L’s main features. As part of L’s new ‘Material Design’ interface Google had announced the use of a ‘Heads Up’ function. In short this is an update to the way in which notifications are received (and viewed) by a user. With Heads Up installed and once a user receives a notification (email, text, service update etc) the user will be able to see a brief image of the notification’s content.

Google has been using, improving and boosting its Knowledge Graph search services for several years to show users how information can be linked together in graphics form to help find desired results. Now it is again pushing forward in the graph database world through the open-source release of Cayley, which will be used in the continuing development of graph databases.

Android developers are getting their first look at the future with the new Android L Developer Preview edition of the mobile device operating system, which was unveiled by Google on June 25 at the Google I/O 2014 developers conference. The early preview version provides developers and users with glimpses of the evolution of Android as it approaches its seventh birthday in September 2014. Android L marks the first time that Google has ever provided early access to a development version of the OS to device and application developers, according to a June 25 post by Jamal Eason, an Android product manager, on the Android Developers Blog. The preview version, which is available for use as of today, will allow developers to explore many of the new features and capabilities of the next version of Android while providing tools to allow development and testing on the new platform, wrote Eason.

There have been rumours doing rounds suggesting the end of Google’s Nexus line of Android devices. Well, here’s some piece of ‘real’ news for those who are worried about this. Google will be launching a new Nexus device along with the release of its Android L by the end of this year.

It is also a fact that Google is reforming the way it will be rolling out high-end Android devices. Reportedly, the search giant is progressing on a new program dubbed Android Silver, as part of which, Google will be paying big manufacturers such as Samsung, LG and Motorola to make Android smartphones according to the specifications it offers. They will then be sold via cellular carriers like AT&T and Verizon. This is expected to materialise by next year.

The keynote of Google I/O was only and only about one thing – Android. This Linux-based operating system has become the center of Google’s universe. From cars to smartwatches, it was only about Android. That makes one wonder where was the other Linux-based platform, Chrome OS, Google has been developing for a while!

Chrome was not absent, Google did talk about Chrome OS at the event, but it was more about Android than the Chrome OS. You can see Sundar Pichai talking about Chromebook at the event, but was more about Android than Chrome OS.

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